


At Risk of Drowning

by Dorktapus42



Category: The Glass Scientists (Webcomic)
Genre: Angst, Attempted Murder, Gen, OOC Hyde, Temporary Character Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-29
Updated: 2019-08-29
Packaged: 2020-09-29 17:57:34
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,227
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20440139
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dorktapus42/pseuds/Dorktapus42
Summary: Sometimes Jekyll feels like he's drowning.And most of the time, Hyde takes the blame.And this time, well, things get a little out of hand.





	At Risk of Drowning

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoy! This was a lot of fun to experiment with!

Edward, contrary to all belief, wasn’t a chaotic mess of a person. 

Alright, I misspeak, stop- stop laughing. He was chaotic as all hell, and more than a bit of a mess, but he wasn’t quite as bad as everyone made him out to be, alright? 

Listen. He liked to have his fun, but he didn’t usually create something to be left in shambles when he was done. It ruined it when he had to deal with the consequences. 

Most of his fun was harmless, plain and simple. 

The Society burning down was simply the outlier. He  _ had  _ said usually. And it hadn’t been intentional.

But running around the city rooftops monologing until the sunrise? That didn’t hurt anybody, and he only did it a little bit more than was good for him. He hadn’t fallen off of a roof in ages anyway, and even he will begrudgingly admit he had been rather drunk. 

Things were fine. 

Things were  _ fine _ . 

Well, he had always been quite the practitioner of denial. 

\------------

Things were not fine. 

“-And everything’s just horrible-” A large crash as a large jar was swept off of the desk and onto the floor. “-and it’s all because of  _ you! _ ” The shout echoed around the room, and he wouldn’t be all that surprised if it woke the other lodgers up. 

_ ‘That’s a bit unfair-’ _

He was cut off as a bottle crashed into the mirror he was standing in, shattering both the bottle and the mirror. 

He melted out of the fragments as a haze of smoke, feeling rather shocked. 

“You can’t keep doing this, Hyde! I can’t! I have so much-  _ so much _ \- to keep ahold of, and I can’t work with you on the top, I won’t!”

Oh dear lord, Jekyll had finally lost it. 

Sure, Edward was a bit of a fan of pushing his buttons, but he hadn’t meant to-

He instinctively dodged the glass that crashed into the wall, raising his hands in a pleading gesture.  _ ‘Jekyll, come on now-’ _

Jekyll were shaking. “I can’t. I can’t. I can’t do this anymore- I’m drowning Hyde, it’s holding me under-”

Then the man stood still as if an idea had struck him like a baseball bat. 

A slow smile, ever so deranged, spread across Jekyll’s lips. 

“But what if I take away the water?”

He watched the man rush towards his notebook, muttering under his breath. 

All he could feel was this… cold sort of confusion. 

_ ‘Jekyll?’ _

No answer. He took a step forward.

_ ‘Jekyll. What are you doing.’ _ This could potentially be a problem. He was in his Maniacal Science Mode™ at three in the morning and that could never be good-

“-The root should counteract the leaves aaaaand… there. That should do it. Goodbye Edward Hyde, may you rot in Hell.” The beaker was lifted to the ceiling, as if it was a toast.

Wait, WHAT?

_ ‘Wait, what? Jekyll-’ _

The beaker was raised and he felt an alien rush of fear, rushing towards the glass as if he were able to touch it. His hands passed straight through as he clawed at thin air. 

_ ‘Jekyll, what did I- please-’ _

A swirl of the liquid as Jekyll took a healthy swig. 

_ ‘Henry?!’ _

A grimace at the taste before he polished off the rest of the glass. 

In the space between blinks Hyde was blocked off from the world by a thick, tinted pane of glass, trapped on the other side of the mirror.

He hammered his fists against it, ignoring the phantom pain.  _ ‘Henry! Henry, PLEASE!’ _

As he shouted, he heard his voice ever so slightly slipping away. 

Insert the entrance of more fear than he’d thought was humanly possible. 

_ ‘HENRY! HENRY, I WON’T DO IT AGAIN! PLEASE!’ _

He didn’t want to die. He didn’t want to die oh god he was going to die-

_ ‘PLEASE-!’  _

His voice finally broke into silence until the only sound he could make was the slowly fading thud of fists on thick glass. 

Soon enough all that was left was mouthed screams and mimed fists. 

And eventually Henry couldn’t even see that anymore. 

And Edward was left alone. 

\----------

He rocked in silence, hands clutching at his hair in some desperate attempt to wake him from this horrible dream. 

The worst part of everything was the fact he couldn’t make any noise. He couldn’t- he couldn’t talk his way out, scream his way out, annoy his way out-

His best weapon had been taken away from him and nobody knew he was there. 

_ Back and forth and forth and back and back and forth and forth- _

Almost as bad as the silence was the mix of constant, petrifying terror that he’d completely vanish from one second to the next. It was driving him mad. 

And the crippling boredom, but he wasn’t able to focus on that quite yet. 

He looked out of the mirror he’d managed to end up behind and was surprised to find himself in Frankenstein’s little nook. Huh. Who would have thought. 

He wiped his face with his sleeve and crawled towards the mirror to sit cross-legged on the floor of his little reflective corridor. 

He might as well distract himself watching her do some science, or Creature play chess, or maybe just look at things for awhile that wasn’t that bloody office. 

He never wanted to step in there again. 

If he would ever be  _ able _ to step anywhere again. 

He looked around for a clock. Who knew how much time had passed- well, there was sun coming in through the windows, so it had so at least have been the few hours until daybreak. Had it been days? Weeks?

He briefly wondered how long it would take until he drove himself crazy. 

\----------

Rachel was working early in the morning, baking the day’s bread when she noticed a flash of green out of the corner of her eye. 

She turned round with a grin, a sarky comment on her lips-

But nobody was there. 

Oh. 

She must have been dreaming things. It was rather early in the morning. 

She turned back to her dough with an absent feeling in her chest. 

Hyde hadn’t been around for a few weeks. Almost a month.

He definitely was missed.

\---------

From the few glances he’d seen of Jekyll, he was having a blast without him. 

He was all… atwinkle, flitting around from place to place like a hummingbird. 

Maybe he’d finally been able to get some sleep. 

He wished there were more mirrors in the Society. It got lonely, not being able to see his friends. 

Oh,  _ so lonely… _

\----------

Next time he saw Creature he was reading a book on optics. 

How interesting. And ironic. 

Then Jekyll walked in to give Frankenstein her medicine and he quickly moved along. 

Sue him, he didn’t want to be in the same room with the man who tried to murder him. 

And… technically succeeded? 

All of these normal terms of alive-ness and dead-ness really went out the window with him, didn’t they?

\-----------

Thank god for-

No, wait. Screw god, he’d thank himself. He’d actually suggested that idea. 

Thank him for his suggestion to put a music room in the Society 2.0. 

At least there was one room he could always go to if the silence got too deafening. 

He now had a new hatred for waltz music, as that was really the only thing anyone ever bothered to put on, but that was pretty much par for the course. 

\----------

Dr. Maijabi was grabbing a few vials of ghost’s blood for Jekyll when-

He saw a flash of green out of the corner of his vision. 

What-?

He turned towards the mirror that held his ghosts and… nothing. 

He’d sworn he’d seen something. But all of his ghosts were white and grey-

That was something to think about later, he supposed. 

He had to get these to Jekyll. 

\---------

He reminded himself to never go near Majiabi’s lab again. 

It was like wading through molasses, even though he couldn’t see anything out of the ordinary. 

That, and the concept of ghost’s blood made him a little creeped out now that he was technically… dead? Eh, the technicality didn’t matter. Whatever it was, and whatever he was, aside- he didn’t like it, okay?

The floating tables and things were cool though. 

\----------

Archer was watering and rearranging the plants in the parlor so they could get some of the afternoon sun when he looked up and-

Hyde was reflected back at him through the mirror built into the cabinet, laying down on his back on some sort of surface inside, not noticing him at all. 

He yelped and jumped back. 

Hyde was up in an instant, looking for danger. Inky orange and green dots drifted around him unnaturally.

Then their eyes locked and Hyde’s wary expression was washed away by a look of shock. 

They just stared at each other for an instant in silence. 

\----------

Holy shit. Holy shit. 

Did this mean-

He hesitantly gave a little wave. 

Archer waved back, looking rather confused. 

Holy shit he could see him. 

He watched Archer lean back and call for somebody. Griffin. 

Wait wait wait what if Jekyll heard-

Griffin walked in and stared. 

“What the- Hyde?”

He squashed down the desire to bolt and waved halfheartedly. 

Then somebody tapped the glass and he instinctively hissed at them. 

Majiabi stared back, face curious. So they couldn’t hear him either. 

“So I  _ did _ see you a few days ago…”

Wait, what?

He backed away from the glass as more people heard the commotion and walked in. 

Insufferable gossips. 

He was starting to feel like a science experiment with all of the observing and gasping and the like. 

Then there was a quiet knock on the door as Robert Lanyon waked in. “I do hope I’m not disrupting anything?”

At that Hyde booked it. 

But Lanyon had already seen. “What on earth-”

He ran away from the crowd from reflective surface to reflective surface, making his way down to the other side of the mirrored corridor. 

He faltered to a stop. 

Jekyll’s office. The man himself was working inside, having not noticed a thing.

He wouldn’t have noticed him anyway if he’d been wearing a chicken costume while wrangling a dragon. 

No no no no no-

He whirled around in a flurry of capes and dashed to the other end, barely glancing at the Lodgers who gave a startled gasp as he dashed through in a swirl of colour before beginning rapid conversation.

He ignored them, running past mirror after mirror. 

Eventually he reached the other end. Frankenstein’s quarters. 

Creature was playing chess. 

Frankenstein was working in her own world in the corner. 

He sat down at the bottom of the frame, trying to gather himself. 

He was visible. 

Then he gave a start. 

Oh shit. He was visible. 

He needed to get out of there before either one of them noticed-

Creature dropped a chess piece, mouth slightly agape. 

He frantically shook his head-

But Frankenstein had already turned. She caught sight of Hyde and stared. 

“Dear god, what happened to you?”

He slumped at his place in the bottom of the glass. 

“Mr Hyde?” Creature ventured. “Can you hear us?”

He dejectedly nodded, wiping his hair out of his eyes. 

“Why won’t he say anything?”

He looked up in a flash and stood, fire in his eyes. 

_ ‘You think I would if I could?!’ _

Their eyes widened as they read his lips. 

The only thing either of them could think to say had been already said. 

Dear god, what happened to you?

\------------

The Lodgers scoured the Society, looking in every mirror and reflective surface they could find. 

Nothing. 

Jekyll was still working upstairs, and they didn’t even think of trying to bother him. 

Come on, their friend was out there somewhere. 

Did he really think they wouldn’t care enough to find him?

\-----------

Hyde pointed at the chess piece and gestured where he wanted it to go. 

Creature moved the piece. 

“So you’re saying that what Jekyll said- about the duality of man- was true?”

He nodded. 

Creature frowned. “But to keep up such a charade- why did he choose to pin the blame upon you for the fire? That would essentially be trapping himself.”

He shrugged.  _ ‘He had been running off of less sleep than usual with the Exhibition. And the law was breathing down his back. He didn’t really have many options, I suppose.’ _

“And what ended up making… this happen?”

His eyes darkened. 

_ ‘That bastard mixed an antidote. He just-’ _ He gestured wildly for a moment before sighing.  _ ‘-snapped.’ _

“Had you done anything?”

He leapt to his feet and started to pace, arms waving in a blur. They had no hope of reading his lips on this one, but they could take a hint. 

No, he hadn’t. At least, not in his point of view. 

Now, the  _ diplomatic _ thing to do would be to get all of the facts from both sides and try to figure out a reasonable solution. 

But both Frankenstein and Creature were filled with righteous anger, so diplomacy quickly flew out of the window. 

It wasn’t until Hyde gave a solid, silent punch to the glass did they realize that he had been silently shouting. 

Creature quickly worked to calm him down while Frankenstein tried to think. 

How could they have reven-

No. 

How could they help?

She soon got to work. 

\-----------

Jekyll noticed a strange addition to the Society, seemingly overnight. 

Almost every wall contained a mirror. 

He almost asked if they could take some of them down but…

He didn’t have Hyde to worry about anymore, staring back and jeering at him. 

Let them have their mirrors. 

\------------

There was a quiet knock at the door. Frankenstein looked over. 

“What?”

“Is Hyde in there?”

“Who?”

Oh, she was bluffing. Nice. He turned his attention back to the game.

“He’s trapped in mirrors. Any sight of him? Blonde hair, green eyes-”

“Nope. Bastard hasn’t even paid me a visit.” She paused. “Trapped in a mirror, you say?”

“Oh, yes. We haven’t been able to figure out how, although Griffin and Majiabi are trying to work it out. Perhaps you have any ideas?”

“Not like I have much to work with, but I’ll think about it.”

“Alright, sorry to bother you.”

And the Lodger outside of the door was gone. 

\-----------

Majiabi bottled the vial, ignoring Griffin’s annoyed swearing from across the room. His cat had, once again, reappeared.

Maybe this would work, if the assumptions he’d made were correct. 

He wasn’t one for making concoctions on the whole, mostly supporting ingredients and observing, but it did one well to branch out every once and awhile. 

The silvery potion reflected the light cheerfully, almost like a mirror itself. 

Maybe this would restore- if not the body, then the ability to produce sound. 

That attribute to Hyde’s predicament was rather unusual. 

Now how to get it onto the man?

\-----------

Jekyll could sense it. 

There was a secret the Lodgers were keeping from him. 

Probably accidentally- it wouldn’t be the first time- but still. He tried to make the environment as friendly as possible to prevent those. 

He didn’t like miscommunications. Those often led to accidents. 

But sometimes you just had to wait and be patient. 

He’d find out eventually. 

In the meantime he had to do some work. 

Ideas wouldn’t create themselves. 

\-----------

Somebody was knocking against a mirror. 

He could feel it- like small waves through the air. 

He walked along the corridor, curious. 

Then- molasses. 

He came face-to-face with Majiabi. 

“I believe I might have an idea that might help.”

He sat down at the bottom of the frame, the molasses slowly drifting away like a dispersing cloud. 

His chin rested on one hand.  _ ‘Do tell.’ _

\------------

He stood in the reflection of a window, watching Majiabi pour a thin, silvery potion over the mirror on the stand. 

“Aaaand- begin.”

He flit down the corridor and towards the covered mirror. 

The silvery curtain was like a thick burst of air to the touch- almost enough to be tangible but not quite enough to be a barrier.

It was a very familiar sensation.

He plunged his hand into it, feeling his fingers fuzz and melt. 

He pushed through and drifted out in a haze of smoke and euphoria. 

Majiabi whistled. “Not what I expected, but it seems to have worked.”

He let out a breath. 

It was audible. 

He let out a laugh of pure joy.

The tension in his shoulders relaxed, and he held out a hand to grip the inside of the mirror frame to step back inside.

_ ‘Thank you.’ _

Majiabi’s eyebrows jumped up his face. “You’re going back?”

The grin he received was electric as a foot neatly stepped up to the edge of the frame.  _ ‘I’ll be fine!’ _

He raced back towards the end of the corridor in a haze of colours and laughter. 

It felt like he’d just been given new life. 

It was…

_ Exhilarating.  _

\-----------

The mood of the Society had skyrocketed in a mere matter of minutes, judging by the laughing he heard outside the door. 

If Jekyll hadn’t known better, he would say it was almost like the days before the worry, before the exhibition, when they were all just working for the thrill of the science and the knowledge that came with it. 

Good for them. 

But he still had work to do. 

As much as he was no longer drowning, somebody had to keep the boat afloat so the others could enjoy the ocean.

\-----------

He came out of the mirror in a swirl of orange and green, laughing. 

Frankenstein’s eyes widened. 

“It actually worked?”

He nodded, practically floating in glee. 

_ ‘This is fantastic!’ _ Then his grin shifted to something more mischievous. 

Frankenstein and Creature, having spent a decent amount of time with the gremlin over the last few days, were instantly wary. 

“Oh good lord, what idea do you have now...?”

\----------

Jekyll mentally went over what he would say inside his head. 

Hyde was dead, and the Lodgers deserved to know. 

They’d somehow managed to like the man, and even if the hadn’t, they deserved to know.

He just had to put it in a polite, genuine way. 

He stood at the banister over the foyer and called for everyone’s attention. 

“-And I mean everyone! I have some news that everybody deserves to know, as tragic as it is.”

Whispers soon rose through the air. 

He waited patiently for everyone to gather before he began.

“I have terrible news, everyone.”

There were a few gasps. 

“What? What is it?”

“Edward Hyde is dead.”

The room lit abaze with talking. 

He tried to keep the peace-

Until slow, almost sarcastic clapping broke through the fuzz like a boat through the sea.

The noise soon died except for that  _ clap... clap... clap _ . A universal sharp intake of breath was the only other sound to be heard.

On the other side of the room a short man stood on the coffee table, wreathed in a faint orange and green fuzz, like water mixing with oil. 

His hair was a mess, but his eyes shone brightly, smile electric.

He finally stopped clapping to leap off of the table with a flourish. 

_ ‘Good riddance to bad rubbish, eh? Drinks are on me!’ _

Nobody noticed Jekyll’s rapidly paling face. 

  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> I really wanted Hyde to punch Jekyll in the face, but it didn't quite end up happening. Oh well.   
Either way, I hope you enjoyed! I had wayyyy too much fun with that ending.


End file.
